Offense dooms Phillies in Game 2 loss

Atlanta Braves' Jordan Schafer steals second as Philadelphia Phillies' Cesar Hernandez top misplays the ball in the first inning of Game 2 of a day-night doubleheader on Saturday. The Phillies lost both games. (AP Photo)

Why Citizens Bank Park went from the reputation of a hitter’s paradise when it opened a decade ago, to a morgue filled with shallow fly balls and deep misery in 2014, is impossible to explain.

The Phillies are not a very good offensive team, this is true. But if you took their road numbers and translated them across 81 games, they wouldn’t be bad.

If you did the same with their home statistics, they only would have the Padres to thank for keeping them from being the laughingstock of baseball.

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However, at the halfway point of this season, they are the worst Phillies team ever when it comes to hitting in their home ballpark.

The Braves completed a doubleheader sweep with ease, putting up three runs in the sixth inning to cruise to a 5-1 win in the night cap after a 10-3 flop in the opener.

That means the Phils (36-45) have completely negated the 5-2 road trip they made to Atlanta and St. Louis, as they have lost five of seven at home, with the Braves threatening to complete a four-game sweep Sunday.

Pity Sean O’Sullivan, who knew he was coming to town for one start and one start only, and put forth a game effort. He allowed a first-inning run on a soft RBI single by Justin Upton, but worked four shutout innings after that. The Phils got that run back in the bottom of the third on a Jimmy Rollins sacrifice fly, but that was the exception as opposed to the rule when they had runners in scoring position with less than two outs.

In the sixth Chris Johnson sliced a two-out single to right off O’Sullivan that scored Upton and put the Braves ahead, 2-1. It might as well have been 20-1. You could tell there would be no response.

The Braves did add two more runs in the sixth when Mario Hollands failed to mop up for O’Sullivan, instead allowing a two-run double to Tommy La Stella.

The pitching wasn’t the problem, however.

“This will be my fourth Major League club,” O’Sullivan said. “But it’s always different. Today when I got called up, I didn’t know how to get to the hotel, I didn’t know how to get to the park, I didn’t know how to get to the clubhouse. It’s always a change of events and things you have to figure out on the fly. And those things always make it exciting.

“(The pitchers in Triple-A) knew they had a doubleheader coming up, so it was kind of up in the air whether they would go with someone up top to start the game or if it was any of us in Triple-A ... You don’t want to be let down. So you just do your best and do your job and hopefully they call your name.”

They called O’Sullivan’s name. Unfortunately for him, the hitting at home has been Single-A quality.

The Phillies’ team OPS at home dipped below .650 with the loss. The last time that happened was 1968, and only four times in the last century has it been that weak. The team average, meanwhile, dropped to .226. Never have the Phillies hit for an average that low at home.